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Sunday, November 15, 2015

A Quick Review of My October Allure Beauty Box

If you read my review of my September Allure Beauty Box you'll know that I fell in love with the subscription box because of the quality and value of the products I received. Though I didn't expect for the October box to top it, I was still hopeful that I'd find some interesting products and something that worked for me. Suffice it to say the October box was a total bummer and even the products I was excited to try ended up being flops. In the interest of full disclosure, I figured I'd put together a quick review of what I got and why it didn't work for me.
The product I was probably most excited to receive in my October box was the Jouer Daily Clarifying Treatment Oil. I'm a fan of the brand's Matte Moisture Tint and since I'm in the market for a nighttime treatment oil and my skin can always use more clarity I thought it'd be great. But no. Unfortunately this oil just really broke me out and is now collecting dust on my shelf.

The next thing I was most anticipating was the Rituals Ginkgo's Secret Ginseng & Ginkgo Biloba Caring Hand Balm. I love trying new hand creams (as my office desk will attest) and thought that a balm seemed extra hydrating and perfect for the Winter months. Plus, yay for full-size products! But I seriously need to call shenanigans on Allure for this one. They claim the balm is "non-greasy" when it is quite literally the greasiest thing I've ever put on my hands. You just keep rubbing and rubbing hoping it'll absorb and though the balm does end up transforming into an almost powdery feel on your hands, it still remains so greasy that your hands shine. How it can be both powdery and greasy I have no idea but they've achieved that kind of black magic. It also smells like something a Grandmother would wear which unfortunately isn't really my style. I honestly don't know how they can charge $17 for this cream.

Next up was the Cargo Eye Shadow in Flint. I think out of all the shades they sent out I probably received the most wearable and neutral of the bunch (thank God) but the pigmentation is sheer and the texture isn't anything to write home about. Allure claims these shadows are buildable but honestly that just sounds like a cop-out to me. If the pigmentation is wimpy please don't try and convince me that that's a perk. Why should I have to work at building a color so it looks the way it does in the tin? Another full-size product that was just a bit of a let down.

I love trying new masks so I was intrigued by the Red Flower Lymphatic Phytopower Sea Cleanser and Mask. That's a mouthful of a name for a product that did absolutely nothing for my skin, as a mask or a cleanser. Not only did this fail as a treatment, but the packaging made it almost impossible to actually use. It's housed in a thick plastic tube which can't even be squeezed to release the product so you have to bang it against your hand like an old-school glass bottle of Heinz. Ain't nobody got time for that.

The Bumble and bumble All-Style Blow Dry is almost forgettable even though it doesn't disappoint as much as some of the other products in this box. It kind of gets lost in the shuffle because I have so many other Bumble and Bumble styling creams that I've received from subscription boxes and this one is a bit thinner and less de-frizzing than some of the others.

Possibly the most aggravating sample of all is the Kryolan Lipstick Matt. I despise single use samples because you don't really get to test how the product works for you over time and the packaging isn't conducive to saving any product that might be left over for another use. Although they give you three different shades and enough product of each color to last for multiple uses, there is no cover or lid to the sample meaning storing it is an absolute nightmare. When combined with the clown-level brightness of the colors I probably would have been happier had they just not included it at all.

So, there you go. It probably would have more appropriate to title this 'A Not-So-Quick Rant About My October Allure Beauty Box' but that probably wouldn't have attracted many readers. I really wanted to love the Allure Box but it's just a bit too hit and miss for me. I almost feel like they were so focused on putting together their Allure 'Best in Beauty' issue that they just let last month fall by the wayside. I don't usually tend to write reviews for products or books that I really dislike but I think maybe it's important to show both sides of the coin.

And it's important to note that the products weren't all awful they just all fell short for different reasons and resulted in the box as a whole just disappointing me. Obviously, as with any product, what didn't work for me might work for some other people and as with most subscription boxes some months are amazing and some others are meh. Those are just the ups and downs of the beauty world. I ended up cancelling my subscription and will not be receiving the November box. I'm taking a small break from subscription boxes for the time being.

Have you tried any of these products? Did they work for you? Do you appreciate posts where people talk about products that didn't work for them? Let me know in the comments below.

2 comments:

Aww! At first glance I saw this box and thought it looked awesome! How disappointing that when you went to try the products, most were duds! That really sucks about the Cargo shadow. I used to love their shadow singles back in the day. That looks waaay too long to be worth it. Ugh!